Certainly not a favourite -The Number of the beast - I only finsihed this pile of twaddle, because I couldnt beleive it could stay that bad right to the end. It did.

Anything by Brin, Bear (Darwins Radio is a fantastic read), Hamiliton, Benford etc etc blows most of Heinliens stuff in to the weeds, often (but not exclusivly) by virtue of being written more recently and having the advantage of newer ideas to play with.

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST was... awful. I seem to recall that it was written soon after Heinlein had suffered some ill health (a stroke, I think, while on vacation in Tahiti?). Such was Heinlein's stature by that time that no publisher would do major editing on his work. While Heinlein turned out better books later, to me his "juveniles" will always shine because that's what got me into science fiction back in the 1950s. Soon after, I discovered Doc Smith. I've been hooked on SF ever since.

Still, BEAST had its moments. It was and was meant to be a parody. The part set in the Lensman universe was delicious, speaking of Smith.

And I do agree with you on the newer writers, some great works being crafted today. David Brin, as you mention, is one of those writers. My company recently published Hugo-winner Mike Resnick's omnibus of three novels (THE GALACTIC COMEDY) to which Mr. Brin was kind enough to supply a foreword.

Starship troopers would have been fine as a film (albeit a B movie!), if it hadnt been called Starship Troopers! Calling ti that made people think it would resemble the book, which it obviously didnt. Its a shame, because the opening chapter (IIRC) of the drop in to the atmosphere in pods would have been great if it could have been transfered to film.

Yes, I completely agree. It's a very filmic scene, and in general, I think that the book would translate well into movie (given ats fairly filmic plot). But now Verhoeven (ptui) has soiled the nest, and anything named 'Starship Troopers' will be forever linked with the drek he created to soil Heinlein's name. Old Robert would'a shot him himself had he been alive...

that is to say, I'm reading Stranger right now, close to the end.AT first I didn't like the book but as I got into it I started enjoying it. definitely some good phylosophy and shrewd social analysis that applies even today(and the book was written over 40 years ago)

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i really need to get around to reading most of his works, i've only read about 6 of them so far . i think he definitely has tried ramming his stranger philosiphy down people's throats in several books (not that it's wrong necessarily). others that i've read that do it are i shall fear no evil and glory road off the top of my head. personally, glory road is the best of the three in my opinion because he focuses more on the individualistic aspects of his philosiphy than the whole communitarian ideals of stranger and evil. i mean, i have good liberal, left-of-center economic views, but there's such a thing as taking it too far.....

hell if you put it that way forget them both, Frank Herbert is God!!!! asimov is an awesome world- and plot- builder, but his characters are so shallow compared to Herbert's, and really Herbert is better at the other two things as well. Dosadi Experiment is my favorite Herbert, followed by Dune, the Jesus Incident, and the rest of the Dune series, but I have yet to read a poor book by him, though admittedly there are a few I haven't read yet.

I only have read one - I don't the title right now but it's telling the story of farmer at Ganymed. The most interesting aspect involved is the method to fertilize the ganymedian soil - it might be a very realistic method that could be applied to martian soil perhaps.

hell if you put it that way forget them both, Frank Herbert is God!!!! asimov is an awesome world- and plot- builder, but his characters are so shallow compared to Herbert's, and really Herbert is better at the other two things as well. Dosadi Experiment is my favorite Herbert, followed by Dune, the Jesus Incident, and the rest of the Dune series, but I have yet to read a poor book by him, though admittedly there are a few I haven't read yet.

Asimov's Foundation series was great, his robot novels less so. Herbert's DUNE was a massive achievement but the later sequels highly disappointing. I do agree with you on Asimov's characterizations.

Ahhh Dune was an amazing book. But I agree, the sequels were much less fulfilling than the original Dune. I lost myself in that book for days, people would try talking to me and I would not even realize they were there until they started shaking me... Amazing...

yea..... i first read dune in fourth grade, then read the rest of the series, and didn't like them very much, but i reread them recently and, well, i enjoyed them all MUCH more. dune is obviously the best one, but i think all of them are great books by themselves. after dune, i think the plots all become much more convoluted and difficult to follow, and they don't have the same uniqueness as dune does, but they all kick ass. heretics is second best in my opinion, what with it's awesome ending- the only one that rivals dune in that category, then children of dune, just because leto is cool, then god emperor because it's different than the others, then chapterhouse again because of the cool ending, then dune messiah is last, just because it seems kind of like the filler between dune and children of dune.